New Home Page Design for Landscaping Company

The Yard Group is a family of companies established for the purpose of bringing together the best of the best in the landscape services industry. Our company objective is to provide to our customers the absolute highest level of quality possible - first class design, unparalleled craftsmanship, unfailing delivery on our commitments and a breadth of service and capabilities second to none. Product: The Company provides a full complement of landscape services to include, but not limited to:

• Landscape Design
• Landscape & Hardscape Installation
• Garden Care
• Lawn Maintenance
• Irrigation Installation & Service
• Fertilization Services
• Carpentry
• Snow & Ice Management

Our Professionals: The Yard Group is proud of our quality craftsmanship, attention to detail and certified training in our field. We feel strongly that our creative, skilled employees are the heart and soul of our company. We value and acknowledge each employee as a unique and individual part of the team. We encourage the continued growth of each team member, professionally, personally and as a member of the community at large. Your deliverable for this contest will be the design for the homepage (1 screen) of The Yard Group.

Round 1

At the end of Round 1, the customer will choose up to five (5) Round 1 winners, each will win $100 and a Design Review.

Round 2

Round 2 will start with the announcement of up to five (5) $100 Round 1 winners and their Design Review from the customer.
PRIMARY GOALS: The requirement for this contest is to design one (1) page - the home page. You may include additional pages in your submission if it helps your overall submission, but it is not required. This website will provide information and services to both landscape professionals (members) and consumers of landscape products and services (clients). The site will be allow a client to perform such actions as browse galleries of local members, schedule services, etc. It will allow members to join the Yard Group, create an online presence, manage appointments, service offerings, accounting, payroll, etc. Your designs must portray the corporate brand and mission as well as show how the target audience would be represented and captured. Here are some goals for the overall site and system to keep in mind:

• Create a customer experience second to none - refer to Nordstroms customer service model
• Improve client intimacy/service through Interactive/Direct Access (CLIENT Log-in Portal)
• Utilize efficient operating systems and communication mechanisms in multiple geographies (MEMBER Log-in Portal)
• Increase brand awareness
• Optimize online presence - SEO, etc

TARGET AUDIENCE: CLIENTS:

• Focus primarily on the residential marketplace offering a unique customer experience that is not currently available in the industry.
• We establish close relationships with our clients - urgency and quality are of the utmost importance to us.
• Our clients are professionals lacking time; typically 2-income households; middle-high end clients with house values of $400k plus; they want easy, reliable service; proud of their properties
• Our clients understand value beyond low price - quality/uniqueness/customer experience = value

MEMBERS:

• Main objective: Improving our members operations through sophisticated operating system and communication technology, with customer management and retention being the number one priority.

BRANDING: Our mission is professionalism in every aspect of the way we do business. Our identity system portrays that to all who come into contact with our companies, in any capacity. To that end, it is important that certain guidelines are followed whenever elements of our identity system are used. Rules that must be followed are explained as simply as possible. Always use official provided logo files. Do not attempt to recreate the logos, or any new versions. THE YARD GROUP ICONS: The leaf element of The Yard Group logo can be used as graphic icons, when the following guidelines are observed. The LEAF icon can all be screened to any percentage of the official green. They can also be screened to 30% or less black. The LEAF icon can be used at any size. | It can be used alone or in multiples. | It can be rotated 90 degrees clockwise (for a mirror reverse effect) or to 45 degrees counterclockwise or 135 degrees clockwise (to be used as an arrow) but should not be rotated to any other angle. JUDGING CRITERIA

• How well the design complements the Yard Group brand
• How well the user experience is for the non-technical user
• How unique and innovative is the design and interactions.
• How well all the design and content requirements are met.

PREVIEW IMAGE Please create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024 JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi with the 970px template design placed within it. You are free to resize or crop your submission to fit this size, but do not add any filters or elements for dramatic effect, such as drop shadows or reflections. SUBMISSION ZIP FILE One (1) JPG or PNG screens based in RGB color mode at 72dpi. SOURCE ZIP FILE All design source files saved as layered PSD, AI or EPS. FINAL FIXES As part of the final fixes phase you may be asked to modify color and other minor design elements.